Propelling ships.



PATENTED MAY 24, 1904.

B. BOHN.

PROPELLING SHIPS.

APPLICATION rILnn mm: so, 1903.

no monm.

lnveniar UNITED STATES Patented May 24, 1904.

PATENT OFFICE.

PROPELLING SHIPS- SPEGIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 760,518, dated May 24, 1904.

Application filed June 30, 1903.

. a specification.

The floating or fin propellers hitherto employed for propelling ships have the drawback that they bear against the water with their full broadside both when makinga nonpropelling movement as well as when working, and thus produce not only a great resistance, but also greatly affect the forward movement of the ship.

This invention has for its object to remove this drawback, more particularly for submarine boats, in which, in consequence of the great resistance to the movement forward, an increased expenditure of power is necessary for steering and reversing the movement. This kind of ships propeller should be successfully used. The peculiarity of this construction allows, in fact, of a uniform travel forward and backward without turning the vessel or any sudden stopping and when arranged obliquely allows of a rising of the submarine boat. The finpropeller is also of great importance in ships on the surface of the water, where it is a question of rapidly checking the movement and rapidly reversing the movement without turning the ship.

The object of the invention is shown in the accompanying drawings.

Figure 1 is a side view of the mechanism; Fig. 2, a view, on a reduced scale, showing a diagrammatic arrangement of the driving; Fig. 3, a section of the ships fin on the line A B of Fig. 1.

As may be seen from the drawings, avertical shaft 6 projects from a casing a, which is open toward the water, and serves inside this casing as a guide or support 0 for the fin or propeller. The latter consists of a rectangular wood plate cl, the longitudinal sides of which are stiffened by an iron frame 0. On

the ends of the plate strong support-barsf are applied, which at the end of each stroke retain the propeller in the slot of the guide a. The fin-guide is formed in such a way that Serial No- 163,677. (No model.)

the iron frame slides exactly in grooves, while the wood plate does not encounter the walls of the slot in order to avoid friction. Slidebars 9 travel in stuffing-boxes on the vertical walls of the casing 0;, the outer ends of which slide-bars are each provided with a plate 72 The mode of working of this device is such that the shaft & so long as one of the retaining-barsf of the tin rests on the opening 0 makes a half-revolution, and thereby carries the tin with it, and then one of the two slidebars g presses its end plate It against one of the retaining-bars f, and so pushes back the tin into the same position which it had before the commencement of the movement hereinbefore described. The movement continues again. in the same manner. In travelingin the opposite direction the shaft moves in an inverse direction, whereupon the other slidebar comes into action. I

The machine may be driven in various ways. For instance, in the arrangement shown in Fig. 2 the slide-bar is moved by a machineshaft i by means of an eccentric Z2, while the shaft 6 is operated by means of a doublebevel transfer-gear. In order to obtain an intermittent rotary movement, such as the arrangement of the present ships propeller requires, half-eouplings or clutch arrangements 8 are keyed on the horizontal shaft l, in which half-couplings the suitably-shaped ends/)1 of a socket on, loosely mounted on the shaft and displaceable thereon, may engage according as the socket is to be coupled to the right or left by a lever arrangement 0. Two bevelwheels p are firmly connected with thesocket m, only one-half of the periphery of which wheels is provided with teeth, which teeth are arranged opposite one another.

According to the adjustment one of the bevel-wheels p gears with a bevel-wheel q, toothed on its entire periphery, and thereby operates a rotation in one direction or the other.

As the bevel-wheels p are only toothed on half their peripheries, the shaft Z) always only makes a half-rotation and remains stationary so long as the teeth are out of engagement.

The left slide-bar of Fig. 2 may be operated either by means of multiple-bevel transfer-gear and eccentrics through the same, drive-shaft z', or receives its movement through a separate electromotor or steamcylinder, the low-pressure cylinder of the main engine being able to be employed therefor. The arrangement may also be such that on each side of the ship two fins are located in proximity to one another, so that when one has finished its half-revolution the other commences the same.

When the vessel, owing to one-sided loading, assumes such a position that the fins form an angle to the perpendicular, the device may be employed for raising submarine boats, using the upward-propelling force which then comes into action.

If the ships fins are to be employed for rapidly stopping the vessel, they must be fixed in a position at right angles to the direction of travel. This is attained by the two slidebars being brought so far forward at the moment in which the fin assumes this position that they press against the broad side of the guide 0, and thus prevent any movement of the body of the fin. The reversal of the direction of rotationof the shaft 5 takes place by means of a lever arrangement 0, which is connected by mechanical or electrical means with the arrangement for reversing the move ment of the slide-bars g.

The fin propeller hereinbefore described may also be employed in ships which are providedwith screw-propellers when it is a question of obtaining a rapid alteration of direction and turning of the vessel.

WVhat I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is

A propeller consisting of the combination of an intermittently-rotating shaft provided with a transverse slot, a paddle located in said slot and means for sliding the paddle through the slot to change its radial position after each rotary movement of the shaft.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of two witnesses.

ERNST BOHN. 

